A segregated town, a hidden boy, a courageous girl - and a
mystery in desperate need of solving.

San Francisco, 1900. Thirteen-year-old Lizzy Kennedy is not
like the other girls in her town. She'd much rather be helping her doctor
father with his patients than be stuck in frilly dresses and learn how to dance
- but unfortunately for her, society (and her Aunt Hortense) has other ideas
about what is 'proper' for a young lady. This includes not poking your nose in
other's people's business - but then Jing, their beloved housekeeper, gets
stuck in the Chinatown quarantine. Fear rules San Francisco - fear of the
Chinese, and mostly fear of the plague rumours that circle them. Lizzie knows
she has to help Jing, whatever the warnings. But what she doesn't expect to
find is a strange boy hiding in Jing's room.

The boy is called Noah. He says he's Jing's son - although
Lizzie's never heard of him - and although he's escaped the quarantine, he
can't risk leaving the house in case he gets rounded-up too. Lizzie wants to
investigate, but it seems her questions only get people riled up. Is there
really plague in San Francisco? What have the Chinese got to do with it? Just
what or who is the mysterious 'monkey' - and what has his secret got to do with
anything? Lizzie will have to use all of her courage, instinct and cleverness
to unravel the mystery of the monkey's secret, save Jing, Noah and Chinatown -
and maybe even her change her own destiny.

The Monkey’s Secret takes place in San
Francisco in 1900. Our narrator is the thirteen year old Lizzie, or rather
Elizabeth, Kennedy.

Suddenly Chinatown is quarantined and their cook, Jing, is
captured inside. They fear it’s the plague and no one is going in or out.

While Jing is gone she finds out that he has a son named
Noah, Noah is hiding in Jing’s room during the quarantine and he and Lizzie
quickly become friends.

Lizzie is a very peculiar girl, her dad’s a doctor and she
likes to go on calls with him. She one day hopes to be a doctor herself and she
knows a lot of stuff about illnesses and the human body in such a young age.
Lizzie doesn’t like dressing up but she loves to read and write poems.

I think Lizzie is such a great character! I haven’t found a
character in a childrens or middle grade book like her in a long time and she’s
just how I like my characters in those books! She’s so nosy and she doesn’t
take no for an answer!

Seeing this lonely little girl begin to make friends was
great! She definitely grows after getting friends!

Noah is 12, the cook’s son and knows a lot more about life
in general than Lizzie. He’s had a hard upbringing since he’s Chinese and he is
therefore prejudiced. Noah and Lizzie’s friendship is such a cute one! Lizzie
does everything she can to see him whenever the coast is clear, she makes sure
he has food while Jing is gone and he’s her first friend!

Lizzie’s other friends are Gemma and Gus, you can clearly
see why Gemma and Lizzie are good friends. They are both peculiar and up to no
good - Gus too. They’re the perfect friends for each other and I think Gus’
crush on Lizzie is adorable!

The story didn’t impress me that much. I enjoyed getting to
know the characters and I found myself liking all the characters in the end but
I really don’t have that much to say about the story. Not a lot happens before
the ending to be honest and I don’t want to spoil that for you – but it wrecked
me!

I think my favourite part of the story was when Gus’ asked
Lizzie to the cotillion and the actual cotillion – so cute!

I was really intrigued by the synopsis but for me the book
fell a bit flat. Even though I enjoyed Lizzie and Noah, Lizzie and Gemma,
Lizzie and Gus and just Lizzie basically, I wasn’t that impressed. I was really
looking forward to reading it and I wish more of it was actually set in
Chinatown. There’s a lot of talk about Chinatown but only a very small part of
the book takes place there.

So, the characters are great but it’s basically the story
that’s a let down! I enjoyed it though and gave it 3 berries out of 5!